About this item
Highlights
- In this brilliant and sobering self-portrait, Édouard Levé hides nothing from his readers, setting out his entire life, more or less at random, in a string of declarative sentences.
- Best Translated Book Award (Fiction) 2013 3rd Winner
- About the Author: Édouard Levé (1965-2008), born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a writer, photographer, and visual artist.
- 120 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Literary
Description
About the Book
A work of autobiographical fiction recounts the author's life in a string of objective, declarative, and unrelated sentences.Book Synopsis
In this brilliant and sobering self-portrait, Édouard Levé hides nothing from his readers, setting out his entire life, more or less at random, in a string of declarative sentences.
Autoportrait is a physical, psychological, sexual, political, and philosophical triumph. Beyond "sincerity," Levé works toward an objectivity so radical it could pass for crudeness, triviality, even banality: the author has stripped himself bare. With the force of a set of maxims or morals, Levé's prose seems at first to be an autobiography without sentiment, as though written by a machine--until, through the accumulation of detail, and the author's dry, quizzical tone, we find ourselves disarmed, enthralled, and enraptured by nothing less than the perfect fiction... made entirely of facts. Shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award in 2013.
Review Quotes
"I'll go ahead and call [Autoportrait] a work of genius..." --Wayne Koestenbaum, Bookforum
"Autoportrait is a delight the first time around and only gets better upon rereading or being read alongside Levé's other works." --Words Without Borders
"...a beguiling and sui generis self-portrait..." --The Paris Review
About the Author
Édouard Levé (1965-2008), born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a writer, photographer, and visual artist. Levé was the author of four books of writing Oeuvres, Journal, Autoportrait, and Suicide and three books of photography.
Lorin Stein is an American critic, editor, and translator. He was the editor in chief of The Paris Review until 2017.